Pospíšilová Petra, Bosák Juraj, Hrala Matěj, Krbková Lenka, Vrbová Eliška, Šmajs David
Department of Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
Department of Children's Infectious Disease, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
Commun Med (Lond). 2025 Jun 10;5(1):224. doi: 10.1038/s43856-025-00948-x.
For many years, syphilis treatment was considered straightforward due to the universal susceptibility of Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum (TPA) to penicillin antibiotics.
Penicillin-binding protein genes from a ceftriaxone treatment failure T. pallidum isolate were assessed, and the introduction of identified mutations into two laboratory strains via natural competence was aimed for, followed by in vitro analysis of antibiotic susceptibility of the recombinants.
TPA from the ceftriaxone treatment failure case contained A1873G and G2122A mutations in the TP0705 gene. Introduction of the A1873G mutation into laboratory strains DAL-1 and SS14 resulted in partial resistance to ceftriaxone and penicillin G in vitro. Furthermore, in silico analyses revealed that the majority of contemporary TPA SS14-like strains harbors this mutation and are thus partially resistant to ceftriaxone and penicillin G.
This finding indicates that TPA strains accumulate mutations that increase their resistance to β-lactam antibiotics. Alternative approaches for controlling syphilis will be needed, including the development of the syphilis vaccine.
多年来，由于梅毒螺旋体苍白亚种（TPA）对青霉素类抗生素普遍敏感，梅毒治疗一直被认为很简单。
对一株头孢曲松治疗失败的梅毒螺旋体分离株的青霉素结合蛋白基因进行评估，旨在通过自然感受态将鉴定出的突变引入两个实验室菌株，随后对重组体进行抗生素敏感性的体外分析。
头孢曲松治疗失败病例的TPA在TP0705基因中含有A1873G和G2122A突变。将A1873G突变引入实验室菌株DAL-1和SS14后，在体外对头孢曲松和青霉素G产生了部分抗性。此外，计算机分析显示，当代大多数类似TPA SS14的菌株都携带此突变，因此对头孢曲松和青霉素G部分耐药。
这一发现表明，TPA菌株会积累增加其对β-内酰胺类抗生素耐药性的突变。将需要控制梅毒的替代方法，包括开发梅毒疫苗。
